Bringing Theory to Practice: Academic Civic Engagement at St. Olaf College
Miriam Brown, Dana Goetsch, Breanna Johnson, Isabel Peris, Joseph Schantz, and Karl
Turnlund
SoAn 373 Ethnographic Research Methods
May 25, 2011
Excecutive Summary
Abstract
This project was completed in collaboration with a grant received by St.
Olaf College through the Center for Experiential Learning to investigate
students’ development of outcomes through participation in Academic
Civic Engagement (ACE) courses. Theoretical research has suggested that
that ACE courses aid in making students more democratically engaged and
better able to apply their academic knowledge in a career situation.
Specifically, St. Olaf’s ACE program has a goal of developing students’
civic and vocational identity. It was these facets of the ACE outcomes that
became the focus of our research. After conducting 41 student interviews
we found that most students did develop these outcomes, although there is a
potential self-selection bias in our sample. Additionally, we propose that the
benefits students received from the ACE courses are correlated with prior
interest or experience with the subject matter. To finish, we examine
students’ recommendations for the program.
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Overall, we found that students did develop the five outcomes we were
investigating due to their ACE experience. However, we would like to
note that although ACE is a very effective way of gaining these intended
outcomes, it is not the only way. Some students also identified gaining
these or similar outcomes from previous jobs, internships, or other nonACE courses.
We found that, through their ACE experience, students developed the
outcome of civic learning. Interpersonal communication skills and the
ability to effectively engage someone were frequently mentioned as assets
gained by interviewees whose ACE project challenged them to interview
or assist community partners.
Students also developed a sense of civic self-understanding. All were able
to identify a wide range of skills and abilities that they acquired by
engaging in their ACE courses, and they found that the opportunity to
apply their set of individual skills was enlightening and opened their
minds to new leadership and volunteer opportunities they otherwise
wouldn’t have pursued.
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Through our interviews, we found that students achieved a sense of civic
efficacy. Many students commented on how applying the theory that had
been taught in class gave them a new kind of confidence,
Civic action was another outcome gained by students who participated in
ACE. The trend that emerged in our research suggests that students indeed
moved beyond simply recognizing their capabilities and confidence in
pursuing action, but actually felt compelled to follow through to achieve a
greater good for society.
Vocational integration was the last outcome we investigated. Some
students felt that their ACE course was directly related to vocation, but the
key component to whether a student saw their ACE class as vocationally
beneficial seemed to be their previous interest in the subject.
Bringing Theory to Practice: Academic Civic Engagement at St. Olaf College
Miriam Brown, Dana Goetsch, Breanna Johnson, Isabel Peris, Joseph Schantz, and Karl
Turnlund
SoAn 373 Ethnographic Research Methods
May 25, 2011
This project was completed in collaboration with a grant received by St.
Olaf College through the Center for Experiential Learning to investigate
students’ development of outcomes through participation in Academic
Civic Engagement (ACE) courses. Theoretical research has suggested that
that ACE courses aid in making students more democratically engaged and
better able to apply their academic knowledge in a career situation.
Specifically, St. Olaf’s ACE program has a goal of developing students’
civic and vocational identity. It was these facets of the ACE outcomes that
became the focus of our research. After conducting 41 student interviews
we found that most students did develop these outcomes, although there is a
potential self-selection bias in our sample. Additionally, we propose that the
benefits students received from the ACE courses are correlated with prior
interest or experience with the subject matter. To finish, we examine
students’ recommendations for the program.
Introduction:
Nationwide, the cost of obtaining a college education is increasing. Simultaneously, the
need for a college education in order to be a competitive candidate on the job market has never
been greater. Given these facts, and the rising awareness of the nation’s problematic economic
well-being and cost-effectiveness, a critical lens has been cast on the world of higher education.
Theorists from within the sphere of academia have been questioning the value, worth, and the
outcomes of a college education. This question is especially pertinent to the liberal arts
community where the outcomes students gain from an interdisciplinary education are less
immediately applicable in the working world. Integrating academic civic engagement (ACE) into
coursework has the desired effect of producing seven specific outcomes that will help students be
more engaged and more democratic citizens. Academic civic engagement is a process of
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‘bringing theory to practice,’ where students are encouraged to apply the theory they have
learned in the classroom to real-world problems in the nearby community. It has the goal of
making students feel responsible and connected to situations outside of their personal world.
This study examines ACE within the context of our undergraduate institution, St. Olaf College.
Setting and Community
Our research was completed in collaboration with St. Olaf’s Center for Experiential
Learning and focused on the experiences of St. Olaf students who had already participated in
ACE courses offered by the college. We excluded students who were currently enrolled in their
first ACE course, as we were interested in students’ responses after they had had an opportunity
to reflect on their participation in the course. Our research was completed on the campus of our
small, four-year residential, undergraduate liberal arts school in the Midwest, and focused on
currently enrolled St. Olaf students. Because of the nature of the institution, the population of St.
Olaf is relatively homogeneous, with most students coming from an upper-middle class,
Caucasian background.
St. Olaf College, founded in 1874, states on the school’s website that: “St. Olaf fosters
the development of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit,” making it a prime location
where ACE courses could be implemented and evaluated. The same website continues on to
describe the college as a place that encourages and challenges students to seek truth, to serve
others, and to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world (St. Olaf College,
stolaf.edu). These ideals suggest the desired outcomes of ACE and form the foundation of
different ACE courses that involve community-based research, partnerships with community
organizations, and collaboration with community members from the nearby town of Northfield.
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The Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) serves the college as a resource for students,
alumni, faculty, parents and families, prospective employers, and community partners. The CEL
aims to create and facilitate experiential learning that complements the St. Olaf curriculum,
enriches students' academic programs, and guides students in the process of pursuing vocational
goals. We worked in collaboration with the CEL as we began our research to evaluate the impact
of ACE courses on students’ civic learning, civic self-understanding, civic efficacy, civic action,
and vocational integration. Using the theoretical framework of collaborative ethnography, as
described by ethnographer and author Luke Lassiter, we worked in partnership with the CEL on
almost every aspect of our project.
The theory of collaborative ethnography is concerned with the power and politics of
representation, and confronts the question of who gets to represent whom, and for what purposes
(Lassiter 2005:4). These are epistemological problems inherent in qualitative research, often
arising from critiques of anthropology as a discipline connected with colonialism and
imperialism. Proponents of this theory argue that a methodological shift needs to occur if
ethnography is to escape these epistemological issues. Ethnography must be completed and
written through the framework of dialogue, so that the researchers are not simply ‘looking over
the natives’ shoulders,’ as Geertz suggested, but instead sitting side-by-side with them and
reviewing the material together (Lassiter 2005:144). The attempt to write texts that are both
responsive and relevant to the public about whom they are written is a response to larger ethical,
methodological, and theoretical issues in anthropology. Collaborative ethnography is an attempt
to resolve the problems and class and privilege, to address the political disparity between the
research academy and the research site (Lassiter 2005:10).
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In relation to ACE as a project, we utilized the theoretical framework of collaborative
ethnography to ensure that our research would be relevant and useful to the subjects we were
researching. For example: the problem identification, the structure of the interviews and focus
groups, the study subjects, and the manner in which the information would be disseminated were
all decided collaboratively with our community partner in the CEL. This collaboration was most
clearly seen when our research team presented our preliminary results at the ACE Showcase,
inviting students who had participated in ACE course to comment upon and evaluate the way we
had presented their experiences. As our research was completed for a course in
sociology/anthropology, Lassiter’s words were especially pertinent: “The goals and purposes of
anthropology in general seem to be shifting: the discipline’s practitioners, both academic and
applied, are establishing themselves in streams of practice more relevant, more public, and more
accessible to a diversity of constituencies” (Lassiter 2005:73). We completed our research with
the understanding that the information gathered would affect our subjects, St. Olaf College, and
potentially educational curricula elsewhere. Thus, it was important for our research conclusions
to be accessible and available because “In the long run, the production of ethnographic
knowledge defeats its own purpose if it does not become available and accessible to a wider
audience, including the people we study” (Lassiter:121).
Methodology
We conducted our study in conjunction with a $10,000 grant received by St. Olaf from
the Bringing Theory to Practice Foundation that required the implementation of ACE courses
and an evaluation of their impact upon student development (Association of American Colleges
and Universities 2010). Of the many outcomes put forth by the faculty committee, we chose five
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to evaluate qualitatively. After our project received approval from our college’s institutional
review board, we contacted our sample initially by email with a brief project information
statement. The sample was composed of students who had completed one of the 12 different
ACE courses offered by St. Olaf from September of 2009 to January of 2011; many of our
students had participated in more than one course. We requested an interview or participation in
focus group. We notified them that by agreeing to participate in either interview process, the
students were giving informed consent. We could not guarantee anonymity because we met with
our respondents face-to-face, but we did guarantee confidentiality by coding the data and
removing names when quoting or referencing them in our paper. We chose to include a focus
group in our research methodology because, according to Berg, focus groups are appropriate to
use in “generating impressions of products, programs, services, institutions, or other objects of
interest” (Berg 2009:54).
We conducted two focus groups of seven participants in total, composed of: five females
and two male, five seniors and two juniors. Academic majors represented in these groups
included Art, Computer Science, English, Marketing, Psychology, and Social Work. The focus
groups lasted from 45 minutes to one hour. We then interviewed 34 students over three weeks in
which 11 males and 23 females were interviewed for a time that ranged between 15 minutes and
75 minutes. Our sample included four sophomores, 17 juniors, and 13 seniors. These students
were majoring in American Racial Studies, Asian Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Chemistry
Biomedical Studies, Biomolecular Studies, Chinese, CIS, Economics, English, Environmental
Science, French, History, Linguistics, Media Studies, Norwegian, Philosophy, Political Science,
Psychology, Religion, Social Work, Sociology/Anthropology, Women’s Studies
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The interview questions were decided upon prior to the interviews, but the interviews
themselves were semi-structured with the interviewer asking probes, delving deeper into
respondent’s answers, and following a question order that seemed most appropriate to the
conversation (Berg 2009). The students interviewed had participated in a variety of ACE courses
of varying intensity that approached ACE in different ways. For example: one student
participated in ACE by creating a curriculum through which juvenile delinquents from the
Northfield Corrections Office could complete their service hours by working on SEEDS, an
experimental sustainable farming organization. Another student implemented an
intergenerational reading partners program where adults at an adult care center would go into
elementary school classrooms in Northfield and read to the students; other students interviewed
Asian-American immigrants in Northfield to get a better understanding of the needs and
experiences of that community. After conducting the interviews, the information was coded
using content analysis. Our categories were the ACE outcomes we were investigating, and the
units of analysis were themes that had emerged from the interviews.
One weakness of our study may be the lack of cohesion between ACE courses that
students had participated in, and the fact that courses all varied in intensity and the manner in
which ACE was involved. Some ACE courses, such as the course on Asian-American history,
required only one day of interviewing Northfield community members. In contrast, other
courses, such as Ideals to Action, centered on students completing semester-long academic civic
engagement projects. This variability in coursework may limit the generalizability of our
findings. In addition, students volunteered their time to complete interviews with us, suggesting a
potential bias in our results if students who had a really good or really bad experience with their
ACE course, were more likely to discuss their ACE experience. Similarly, there might be another
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instance of self-selection bias if ACE courses themselves were appealing and drew an audience
of students who were already civically engaged and had already developed the five outcomes we
were investigating. Additionally, the homogeneity of our sample may similarly limit the
generalizability of our findings. Finally, time constraints imposed by a slow IRB process and the
semester deadline also presented a limitation to what we could research.
Our methodology relied heavily upon face-to-face interviews, but because of our unique
position in being both subject matter and researcher simultaneously, it is important to add that we
did conduct some participant observation. In completing this research for a class that included an
ACE component, we were also actively participating in what we were trying to observe in other
students.
Problem Definition:
Past research has suggested that institutional reform amongst colleges and universities is
a growing necessity if students are to graduate as ‘whole people’ with the capacity to participate
fully in a democracy (Association of American Colleges and Universities 2010; College
Outcomes Project; Jacoby 2009; Musil 2003; Strand 2003). The critique of the current system is
rooted in the disconnect between college campuses and the surrounding communities,
academia’s narrow definition of what qualifies as legitimate research, and a recognition of the
need to help students develop their civic capacity in order to prepare them for active democratic
citizenship (Strand 2003). Consequently, there has been a call for colleges to move away from
traditional methods of education towards forms that are focused on ‘transformational learning’: a
style of teaching that would ensure the student’s development as reflective, thinking, and
contributing citizens (College Outcomes Project). In response to this concern, Jacoby
recommends an educational focus on civic engagement that can better equip students with skills
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for leadership and civic involvement (Jacoby 2009). She defines ‘civic engagement’ as: “feeling
responsible to part of something beyond individual interests” which includes community
involvement, responsibility, and knowledge (Jacoby 2009).
According to Jacoby, civic engagement can be integrated into the classroom through
academic civic engagement courses that address problems and meet human needs; respond to
challenges confronting children, schools, and cities; involve social responsibility and leadership
within organizations; and combine knowledge and action within the framework of community
involvement (Jacoby 2009). In support of Jacoby’s recommendation, past research suggests that
“intensive and persisting forms of engaged learning positively affect the health and well-being
[of students], in addition to the civic development of students” (Association of American
Colleges and Universities 2010). In light of the purported benefits of transformational and
engaged learning, there has been a call for more research to explore the impact of such learning
upon students’ development and for further evaluation of current programs so campuses can
“construct more integrative environments in which educating for democratic citizenship is
understood…as a fundamental goal of the twenty-first century liberal education” (American
Colleges and Universities 2010; Musil 2003).
Our research builds upon past studies by focusing on a few of the outcomes associated
with academic civic engagement courses that bring transformational and engaged learning styles
into the classroom. According to the intended outcomes of ACE, ACE courses are meant to be
helpful in developing students’ ability to apply academic knowledge and proficiencies in service
of a civic/community aim (civic learning), and in developing students’ ability to evaluate their
academic knowledge and proficiencies (civic self-understanding) (St. Olaf College). Moreover,
ACE courses are purported to increase students’ confidence in their ability to contribute
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effectively to civic and community endeavors (civic efficacy), to increase their commitment to
pursue civic, community, and work roles that foster the common good (civic action), and to
enable students to articulate how they can use their knowledge and skills to contribute in
personal, civic, or work roles (vocational integration) (St. Olaf College). These outcomes are
also associated with the theoretical framework of transformational learning, suggesting that
educational institutions should adopt a liberal arts curriculum with a practical focus, allowing
students to make meaningful connections in their learning and then use that knowledge as an
engaged citizen (College Outcomes Project). The basis for this theoretical framework are the
desired outcomes of perspective-taking, identity, emotional competence, and resiliency. It
requires that students develop the skills to make meaningful connections in their learning, and
then in turn use that knowledge as an engaged citizen. This theoretical framework words towards
producing in students the “optimal, emotional, psychological, and social functioning and a lifelong process of positive development” (College Outcomes Project). This is especially pertinent
to liberal arts colleges where the curriculum is not directed towards any specific career or jobtrack, but where the objective is to produce able-bodied and critically-minded citizens.
Additionally, in a liberal arts environment where classes are mostly interdisciplinary, more
opportunity is available for making meaningful connections that allow students to put theory into
practice.
In this way, our own research is answering a call made by theorists and researchers due to
a concern about student well-being and development in the current educational system. There is
much literature generating and discussing the theoretical framework for transformational and
engaged learning, but few studies can offer concrete data concerning the gains and benefits of
student participation in academic civic engagement. Researchers Schmidt, Shumow, and Kacker
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found that, for high school adolescents, that “participation in any service is associated with
positive outcomes where service is voluntary or required.” Students who completed service in
collaboration with an organization had better civic outcomes.
We hope that our knowledge on the subject, generated through interviews with students
at a small, Midwestern, liberal arts college will help initiate discussion and continue the
conversation about the role of academic civic engagement in the curriculum of colleges and
universities. Our other goal is more direct, as we hope that our research will assist St. Olaf in
evaluating its own ACE program, helping St. Olaf students become ‘whole people’ while helping
the society at large by producing able-minded citizens. The issue that our research addresses was
brought forth in collaboration with the Center for Experiential Learning at St. Olaf College and
the problem definition was reframed and modified within the context of what our collaborator
was most interested in. Research was initiated with the knowledge that our data would be used
within St. Olaf College to assess and evaluate their ACE program while also being disseminated
to other institutions of higher education to inform their curricula. Interestingly, the theoretical
framework, which influenced and framed our problem, is simultaneously the subject of our
research. As students completing research for credit in an ACE course (SOAN 373:
Ethnographic Research Methods), we were working within the theoretical framework of ACE
while simultaneously studying the theoretical framework that guided us. We had the unique
position of being both subject to, and researchers of, the hypothesis that ACE courses assist
students with their civic development.
Findings:
Civic Learning
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Civic learning, the second outcome laid out by the faculty committee, is defined as a
student’s ability to recognize how knowledge or skills gained through academic civic
engagement courses can be applied to a civic or community aim. In its simplest, this outcome
operationalizes students’ ability to see how they might move theory into practice. For many of
the students interviewed, however, the concept of theory or knowledge gained through academic
civic engagement was not particularly salient. When asked to identify theory utilized or
knowledge gained, students often referred to the classroom portion of the course where they
learned the background information necessary to complete the experiential component. For two
students tasked with interviewing a member of the immigrant community, their in-class lecture
and discussion on the history of immigration and the Asian-American immigrant experience
helped them to shape their interviews. For students, it was easiest to reflect on theory by framing
it as the building blocks for their respective experiential components. One female social work
major reflects,
We had a communication workshop in which we reviewed theories from previous (Social
Work) courses; engagement and termination, strategies for creating a relationship, how to
be an effective listener, being sensitive to population issues, etc. These things translated
directly to our work with the elderly population.
Interviewees whose academic civic engagement project challenged them to interview or
assist community partners frequently mentioned interpersonal communication skills and the
ability to engage someone effectively. For many students, this engagement presented particular
barriers to communication that had to be considered given the populations they were working
with. Though most agreed that interpersonal communication was a challenge, a number or
interviewees pointed out the necessity of this skill as it related to their vocational or career
interests.
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When you’re working with community partners, it requires a more professional manner,
your reputation and the reputation of the school are at stake. It forces you to talk to
people, get your name out there, and practice some networking skills.
This student in particular, a sociology/anthropology in his final semester at St. Olaf, saw
this particular skill set difficult to gain through traditional classroom learning, yet necessary in
his chosen career field and therefore an invaluable asset of civic engagement. Another student
saw civic engagement as an opportunity to practice the intercultural competency necessary in
pursuit of her own vocational interests, yet identified a number of significant barriers.
We felt like this was an opportunity to give people who had otherwise been silenced a
voice, an opportunity to speak. This was a chance for him to share his story and for us to
learn from that but the experience broke down because of a simple language barrier. I
thought there was a role missing, someone to step in and say ‘no this isn’t working’. So
much frustration over the interview made me feel like I wasn’t particularly adept at this
skill.
For this student who identified academic civic engagement as a route to learn or
demonstrate knowledge and skills aligned with her vocational and career interests, barriers to
successful engagement limited her own sense of efficacy or preparedness. For nearly all
interviewed students, however, the challenges inherent in engaging community partners were
reflected in a positive light as well.
Civic Self-Understanding
Listed as the third student outcome in the ACE framework, civic self-understanding
involves the student’s ability to be aware of, and evaluate one’s own, academic knowledge and
competencies. These skills may include, but are not limited to, written and oral communication,
teamwork, critical and creative thinking, information literacy, and intercultural competency.
Among the students interviewed, all were able to identify a wide range of skills and abilities that
they previously possessed or acquired by engaging in their ACE courses. A senior female
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Sociology/Anthropology and Biology double major commented on how her ACE course fostered
the development of many different skills:
I had to learn to communicate with a range of different people. I especially
had to learn how to talk with people who are older than me. More than
that, though, my teamwork and group work skills improved, also time
management, and networking.
Another female Political Science and English double major mentioned how she had grown
during her ACE course by saying,
My organizational skills improved dramatically because you are
accountable and responsible for a project that people in the community are
already so involved in, and have already put a lot of work in to.
A female Sociology/Anthropology major affirmed this by stating,
Group work is a big component of most [ACE] classes, and working in a
group long-term in challenging and I think you learn a lot about your
leadership styles and what you are good at. You also learn how to manage
group conflict resolution. And I think it’s different when you have
someone [a community member] relying on your results. You’re doing
whatever project, but it’s not that you can make stuff up. Being
responsible to the needs of someone else brings out different levels of
intensity.
A female Sociology/Anthropology and Political Science double major with an Middle Eastern
concentration noticed that in her ACE class,
Thinking on the spot was really important. We had to do a lot of probing
during our interviews with community members, and thinking of good
follow-up questions was really imperative to getting good information. But
I feel most confident in my researching skills, so much so that I can see
myself considering a career where I’d be involved in some sort of research.
Students’ ability to recognize their skills, and then apply them to real life situations made
their ACE experience a very worthwhile endeavor. All the students interviewed found that the
opportunity to apply their set of individual skills was enlightening and opened their minds to new
leadership and volunteer opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have pursued.
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Civic Efficacy
Civic efficacy, defined as the confidence in one’s ability to contribute effectively to civic
and community endeavors, was another intended outcome of academic civic engagement courses
identified by a group of staff and faculty members at St. Olaf College. For one junior female
student, a CIS major, “having actually done the things [in the community] gives me a different
kind of confidence than just getting feedback from professors. Having done it, you know you can
do it, and you see the results of your work in the community.” Another female student, a senior
Environmental Studies major, also felt this sense of confidence when she worked at a food shelf
for her academic civic engagement course. She said that volunteering there “was a good
experience because I realized that I’m not just a walking brain. I have hands and feet that can be
put to good use.”
Students are beginning to realize the importance of going to college not only to learn
theory, but also to learn how to apply that theory in real life situations. The importance of
academic civic engagement classes, as identified by a number of interviewees, was manifested in
that “a traditional class would have just taught us how peoples’ minds worked, but not
necessarily how [we could best] interact with them.” This experience in ‘the real world’ gave one
senior female, Environmental Studies and French major, the confidence to realize that her project
with a sustainable farm (developing a curriculum where by juvenile delinquents could complete
their community service hours by gardening) was actually implementable. She stated,
One of the goals of ACE is to have what you’re doing not be simply
theoretical but also implementable. I had this epiphany halfway during our
project. I said to my group: “You guys, this could actually happen!” This
was a ‘real person project.’ This could actually help people and bring
people from different parts of the community together. You don’t get that
as much with normal class-work. You can have classes where you just
survey or observe Northfield; but what we were doing didn’t just stay in
the Northfield community.
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However, other students believed that it was not only academic civic engagement courses
that developed their civic efficacy, but also their participation in internships and other
experiences. For one sophomore English and Media Studies major, although her academic civic
engagement class helped her gain valuable skills, it wasn’t until she used those skills in a more
career-like setting that she began to feel most confident. One senior female student said that she
“discovered how self-motivated I could be when given a task that people expected me to do . But
I just relied on my interpersonal skills that I learned in jobs, internships, and work settings, not in
class.”
Civic Action
Listed as the sixth student outcome in the ACE framework, civic action moves beyond
simple recognition of a given community’s need, or the student’s ability to meet it, but instead
involves an increase in their commitment to actually pursue civic, community, and work roles
that foster a common good. Among the students interviewed, many agreed that they gained a
sense of civic action from the ACE components within their course. One student, a junior male
Asian Studies major who took an Asian history course that involved interviewing AsianAmerican immigrants in the nearby community stated,
I’ve definitely wanted to get more involved in the multicultural
community as well as with the St. Olaf community [after taking this
course]. It made me more sensitive to not just the needs of the AsianAmerican community, but also to the ways in which the Asian community
affects the Northfield community and the St. Olaf community. It’s made
me look for more effective ways to get the message [of equality] out.
Similar to his sentiment, a female Sociology/Anthropology and English double major who took
an anthropology research methods course stated,
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When I was using skills and applying them in the theory, I was making
deeper understanding and connections in what they meant and my place in
theoretical anthropology and my role in society...I guess I have always felt
some sense of responsibility but it has shifted in the fact that now I also
feel empowered [by her course and by the research]. My responsibility
doesn’t feel like a burden because I know I can be active to respond to it.
This trend of civic action that emerged in our research suggests that students indeed moved
beyond simply recognizing their capabilities and confidence in pursuing action, but actually felt
compelled to follow through to achieve a greater good for society. In fact, some students who
said they tended to stray away from the other tenets of ACE said that their sense of commitment
to pursue work roles that foster a common public or community good still strengthened, as did
their confidence in this commitment. A senior male Sociology/Anthropology major identified
with this viewpoint stating that,
‘ACE’ has never really been within my academic purview, I've never
really sought out civic engagement courses because I've always sort of
done that on my own. I'm civically engaged in everything I do and the
way I live my life. It seems weird that ACE has to be a special thing, it
should be something we integrate into everything.
At the same time, some students wished they were more supported in their efforts to act on their
knowledge and skill recognition from their ACE courses. A senior female
Sociology/Anthropology and Religion major stated that, “No support was given for the followup or reflection of the ACE projects.” If this component was addressed, she may have felt more
compelled to act on her application of theory, thus fulfilling the civic action outcome.
Vocational Integration
Vocation refers to a person’s passion or purpose in life. This includes, but is not limited
to, finding a meaningful career. Vocational integration marks the final ACE outcome, and is the
one that we found had the most varied response. For example, some students saw ACE as an
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integral influence in the development of their vocation. A junior female Philosophy and Asian
studies major with a Chinese concentration reflected on her American Racial and Multicultural
Studies Course by stating,
If there was no civic engagement part in this class, the connection between
what you were learning and how it relates to the world after college would
be a lot less clear. Taking the civic engagement class meshes the two
together and makes it immediately coherent and noticeable and shows
what ways exactly the issues you study relate to people and what you can
do, or how you could feel called to do something about it.
A female junior Sociology/Anthropology and Religion major, upon reflecting on her
Christianity and Social Power class adds,
After my experiences with ACE, I'm way more confident in what I value and believe in.
Values and beliefs are core to finding a vocation or career. Now that I know what I can
find meaningful, I can look for careers knowing that I can approach settings that I can be
more comfortable in.
By contrast, other students felt that their ACE course did not emphasize civic engagement
as much as they had expected or hoped; consequently finding that ACE did not have positive
effects on their vocational growth. A junior male History major who participated in the
American Conversation program did not feel like the ACE courses in the program integrated
civic engagement to the extent that the students could be fully engaged and impact the
community. He expressed that, though he did not come to dislike the program as a consequence
of this, the lack of meaningful ACE integration did not positively affect his sense of vocation.
Similarly, there were students that said that their ACE experience affected their
vocational growth less, but because they entered their ACE course with a previous conception of
their vocation. For example, a senior Sociology/Anthropology, Political Science, and Women
Studies major claimed, “I had a good sense of where I wanted to go, but ACE gave me some
steps to get closer to achieving that vocational objective. I can't say that it gave me a vocation,
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but it definitely helped me get there.” A junior, Middle Eastern Studies, Religion, and American
Racial and Multicultural Studies major seconded this notion by saying, “ACE is a stepping stone
in the process of figuring out what to do, and more importantly, how to do it.”
At the same time that some students gained vocational growth and some did not, some
said that they did not gain vocational growth solely from their ACE course, but instead cited
other experiences, such as internships and past jobs that also aided them in gaining their sense of
vocation. One senior Sociology/Anthropology and English major with a concentration in
Women’s Studies talked about her internship at Global Mamas in Ghana,
In my internship, I felt confident in my writing and communicating in professional ways
in the business. I gained skills sets in terms of communicating with supervisors. I felt a
stronger sense of vocation because those skills are useful outside of academia. I realized
I’m probably going to make an impact after graduating.
The variation present in vocational growth and integration from both ACE courses and
ACE skills highlights the variable nature of not only how this final outcome was embodied, but
also conceptualized by St. Olaf students. Ultimately, we found that academic civic engagement is
one way of reaching vocational integration, but it is certainly not the only way, nor is it a
foolproof way for everyone to gain a sense of their larger purpose.
Discussion
We found that students’ experiences in ACE classes, their success in the experience as
framed by the outcomes, and their overall enjoyment in the course depended on various factors.
The first of these is the level of ACE intensity in the class. Some classes involved a large ACE
component that incorporated a significant amount of time and work that involved direct
engagement with, as well as time spent in the Northfield community working with a specific
population or organization throughout the ACE experience. The students who had taken high
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intensity ACE courses were generally those who could speak the most about their ACE
experience. By contrast, those students in courses that had a less intense ACE component
typically had a harder time elaborating on their gains and experiences from the course. In both
cases however, we found that students did develop the five investigated outcomes, albeit to
different degrees.
In addition to the intensity of the ACE course, our findings suggest that the outcomes that
students gained from ACE classes also depended on whether or not the class topic was in line
with their educational, career, vocational goals. Students who had prior interest in the class topic,
or ACE in general, were more likely to gain the outcomes to a greater extent than those who took
the course for other reasons, or did not expect or understand the ACE addition to the course. For
example, many students expressed that if the ACE course was within the framework their
academic major, they were more inclined to seek out the benefits of ACE because they were able
to incorporate their theoretical knowledge into a concrete framework with which they were
already familiar.
Relating to whether or not the ACE course was in the purview of prior interest, another
aspect crucial to students’ development of outcomes from an ACE course was students’
expectations of what they might gain from the experience. Students who enrolled with high
expectations worked to see those expectations be met, conversely, those unfamiliar with ACE, or
those with little expectations of what they could gain saw little in terms of the development of
the outcomes. This was exhibited specifically in situations where students were driven by a
previously conceived sense of vocation, or drive for greater social change.
Despite varying ACE outcome strength and fulfillment, students for the most part truly
appreciated what ACE offered to the college and the Northfield community. In fact, a number of
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students suggested that ACE should be included in the list of St. Olaf General Education
requirements. Varying opinions surrounded this notion. In most cases where the students
supported the requirement, the student had had a positive ACE experience. Others felt that it
would negatively affect students’ attitude towards the course, especially if it involved a
significant amount of academic work in addition to the ACE component.
This also correlates with a phenomenon that many of our interviewees identified: most St.
Olaf students are already civically engaged and do not require an in-class ACE component to
help them develop the outcomes our study investigated. As mentioned previously, prior interest
in the subject matter was a factor in determining how much a student benefitted from an ACE
course, but some of these same types of students also tended to state in our interviews that they
already had a strong sense of civic action or efficacy, even before taking the course. They said
that though their classes had not helped them develop their sense of the ACE outcomes further,
the experience did affirm their desire to contribute in a meaningful to their community.
Student Recommendations for Future ACE courses at St. Olaf:
The issues encountered by students were rooted in St. Olaf’s execution of ACE rather
than ACE itself. One issue in particular was the lack of a standard definition of ACE. There is no
established ‘gold standard’ as to how much community involvement constitutes ACE, nor is
there a standard as to how much of an impact ACE should make on a student. The ambiguity of
this standard is especially clear when our findings revealed that many students taking classes in
departments such as Education, Social Work, or Nursing, already demonstrated ACE outcomes
without needing the ACE label. Many of the students we interviewed did not know that the class
they had signed up for had an ACE component and they suggested that it be better advertised
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which courses offered this out-of-class experience. Should courses be more prominently labeled,
ACE might still lack meaning to students who are not familiar with what ACE stands for or
entails.
Additionally, students vocalized the belief that the ACE curriculum needs to be wellconnected and integrated to course material in order for the outcomes to be developed
effectively. Some of our sample felt that the course they took had integrated ACE to an effective
level. A female senior Environmental Studies and French major said,
It enhances the learning you are doing in class. We were reading about social change
movements, and then we got to do something that contributed to something greater. It
wasn’t large scale social change, but it was engagement with people and lending a
helping hand. Your assignment is: go do!
However, some students felt that the ACE component did not connect well or align well
with their class work and thus they were less engaged and benefitted less from the ACE
experience. A female junior CIS (Integrative Justice and Cultural Transformation) major said,
“In AMCON (the American Conversation program), the ACE was not as well-integrated as it
could have been. It was like, ‘Oh, it’s time for civic engagement week!’” This lack of
cohesiveness between the class material and the ACE component made it harder for students to
develop the intended outcomes.
In addition to this, some students felt as if the ACE component of their class was solely
an afterthought. Because of this, students felt as if the class had an even larger workload and
time commitment than the class would originally ask for if it didn’t have the ACE component.
As summarized by a senior Sociology/Anthropology and English major,
St. Olaf as an institution and the CEL as the student services office need to be mindful of
what the students are already doing. If they ask this, what will they take away? There
needs to be some institutional curriculum releases given to students so they have time and
energy to do ACE correctly…. It would be such a shame for people to not get everything
out of ACE that can be achieved if you put your heart and soul into your work.
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Finally, students remarked that they would have benefitted from having class time to
reflect upon their ACE experience. They recommended having the professor lead an in-class
discussion where students would reflect upon the intended outcomes of ACE and how their
experience aligned with those. Such a discussion would help students be able to articulate and
vocalize what they had learned and what skills they had gained. Outcomes such as civic efficacy
and vocational integration could especially be highlighted in conjunction with staff from the
CEL.
Conclusion:
We feel that further study would be highly beneficial in assessing the impact ACE has
upon student’s civic growth and development of identity. Because we worked with a very limited
scope of interviewees, we feel that a broader spectrum of outcomes could be reached with a more
diverse representation of participants. In the future, we would be curious to interview faculty
members on their perceptions of students’ development throughout the timeframe of the ACE
course. We also feel that the input of community partners would be significant in assessing the
actual impact of students’ efforts in the Northfield community. As the ACE program becomes
more implemented into the curriculum, it would also be beneficial to interview St. Olaf alumni
who have taken these courses to note the impact of the program beyond college and the role
these students’ acquired skills play in their lives after graduation.
We understand that our study presents a heavy self-selection bias. Because we relied on
volunteer interviewees, the students who were willing to be interviewed generally had strong
feelings one way or another towards ACE. For future studies, the opinions of all those involved
in an ACE course would be beneficial so that there is not these extremes in interviewee
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responses. We would also like to see a longitudinal study take place in which a control group is
presented, consisting of students who have not taken an ACE course. This would provide a more
accurate evaluation of the program because a direct comparison between ACE and traditional
courses would be presented.
There are myriad potential uses for our research. Firstly, our findings were condensed
into an executive summary that will be sent to the grant funder as part of the evaluative
requirement; this executive summary will be used alongside the information provided by other
grant receivers to assess the benefits of ACE more generally. Secondly, our research team
presented our findings at our college’s ACE Showcase, where both students and professors were
informed of our preliminary results. We hope that these results, disseminated amongst the
student body, the administration, and the faculty, can improve upon the current structure of ACE
courses. Our research can assist professors in being effective in teaching and integrating the ACE
component into their course; it can assist students by preparing them for an ACE course and
guiding the reflection process. For the administration, our research gives material that can be
used to better advertise the program; for community members, our research can be used to show
what students can bring to projects and also what skills/knowledge students hope to gain from
the experience. Our research can be used to build a stronger foundation for the program and as a
tool to assist students, professors, and community members in the collaborative endeavor.
Finally, as a research group, we were simultaneously subject matter and researcher. Since
we have already noted the importance of reflection in developing the desired outcomes of ACE,
we wanted to reflect on our own gains from this ACE project. Like many of our interviewees, we
learned how to interview our peers in a professional environment and communicate effectively
with our adult community partners. We gained ‘real-world’ experience in that our research
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confronted actual problems residing in the educational system. Our research was meaningful
because it had a direct application and the results would actually be utilized. We gained ‘realworld,’ marketable skills by engaging with the ethnographic research process. We learned how
to select a sample, contact the sample, conduct interviews, transcribe and code data, and work
with a group to write a research paper. These transferrable skills are only one of the benefits of
our experience in our ACE course. The seniors in our group identified ACE as way to legitimize
their liberal arts education in a very competitive job market. The experience added to our resume
‘real-world’ skills and knowledge that could be reported to potential employers. In conclusion,
being both subject matter and researcher gave us a unique perspective on how students benefit
from participation in ACE courses.
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